About “99 Problems”

The second verse is fictional, but based on a true story. The cops want to search his car (loaded with cocaine), he refuses, they wait for drug-sniffing dogs that never show up, and Jay gets away with it

In Decoded Jay states he uses this song to confuse critics and point out their own ignorance by hiding a deeper story behind a superficial chorus.

He’s lucky this happens in ‘94. When this song came out (2003), the police needed an “articulable suspicion” to search your car with canines (so Jay would’ve been protected by the 4th Amendment!) Sadly, the assholes on the Roberts court have changed all that (see Becoats v. Georgia)

Jay went old-school for the beat – he grabbed Rick Rubin, Def Jam founder and producer of seminal, hard-hitting beats for the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC and other early rap icons. This song samples the classic breakbeat from Billy Squire’s “Big Beat,” popular with many tunes from that era.

The video became controversial for its ending, where Jay gets shot in a metaphorical end to his rap career. The clip was only aired with a disclaimer in which MTV’s head of programming defended its artistic value.